Physico-chemical and Rheological Characterization of Chitosan/Mucin Matrices

JULIETA I. PÁEZ; ANA BARUZZI; MIRIAM C. STRUMIA; LIDIA MARÍA QUINZANI

Río de Janeiro, Brasil (16 al 21 de julio de 2006)

Congreso; World Polymer Congress, MACRO 2006 - 41th. International Symposium on Macromolecules; 2006

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Associação Brasileira de Polímeros

The purpose of the present work is to prepare and study weakly crosslinked polymer gels based in chitosan and mucin.  The effect of the relative concentration of the polymers and their final volume, as well the concentrations of the crosslinking agent, glutaraldehyde, and a dye, thionine, were considered. The networks were characterized using infrared spectroscopy and rotational rheometry and by measuring the swelling index. The gels show rheological synergism and important changes in swelling properties which are affected by the relative concentration of the polymers. Furthermore, both, the rheological synergism and the decrease in the swelling index, get more significant as the concentration of the crosslinking agent increases and the final volume of solvent decreases.